Twitchers flock to Yorkshire to see female osprey as she makes trip south

An occasional visitor has been causing a stir at St Aidan’s nature park near Leeds.

The young female osprey, captured on film by Debbie Drake, has been on an extended stay at the RSPB reserve, where she has been for a month.

A spokesperson for the park said her visit has sparked huge interest among bird watchers, with dozens turning up to spot the rare bird of prey.

The birds are on the RSPB’s amber list for conservation priority as they once died out as breeding species in the UK in the 19th century.

Now they have breeding sites various places in Scotland, including Loch Garten in the Highlands, in Wales, at Rutland Water in the Midlands, and in the south at Poole harbour in Dorset as a result of reintroduction programmes.

This year was the first that ospreys successfully bred on an RSPB nature reserve in England since the Victorian period as three chicks hatched at RSPB Campfield Marsh in Cumbria in June.

There are now an estimated 316 breeding pairs across the UK.

Staff at St Aidan’s believe their popular visitor has been moving down the country on her journey south and has stopped off to feed, taking fish from one of the ponds at the former opencast mining site.

Since the site has been rewilded they are several ponds which attract water birds including the difficult to spot bitterns.

"We do have ospreys visiting every year, not necessarily the same one every year, and this one has been having a bit of a feed while she has been here,” said the spokesperson.

"They stay off here from wherever they are going to or from, normally at around this time of year. Sometimes it’s the same one, but not always.

"It’s always amazing to see them when they arrive.”

Ospreys are migratory birds and the ones who breed in the UK spend their summers here before heading back to western Africa where they spend the winter period, returning again to this country in the spring to build their nests, lay eggs and fledge their young.

"They are beautiful birds and it is lovely to have then here when they visit,” the spokesman added.

"There has been an enormous amount of people who have come to the site to look at her since she arrived.”